Cob Jockey

Last night in my lesson, she asked what I'd been working on, and I said after finally getting some video, I noticed he'd been running through me in the ToH again, and that the inside hind wasn't marching enough. Really, the lack of inside hind engagement was obvious everywhere and I was trying to remember to keep it active.

New bit is here. Haven't cut the bit guards off bc #lazy. Also the electrical tape fell down my reins like 6 months ago and I still haven't cut that off either. #lazy

We started out with ToH where she quickly got me back on track in terms of the timing of the aids required to keep them active and fluid. In the past, when he was truly running through me, she had had me think one step sideways/one step backwards, but this time she had me think one step sideways (outside aids), one step forward (inside leg) even though his body wasn't actually moving FORWARD. And I was to keep the sideways steps small - he loves to evade by taking huge steps with the front legs.

Tried to get a pretty picture of him in the sunlight afterwards and he was like "...nah."

After that, we moved onto the exercise we'd spend the rest of the lesson on, which was collected canter on a square with a canter/walk tx and then a quarter ToH to change direction in each corner before picking up the canter again (sometimes we threw in a ToF too just to keep on his toes). She called this an "advanced Second Level exercise".

At first, Connor's brain melted out of his ears a bit. He was throwing body parts in every direction in an attempt to not do the exercise the way I wanted him to, and I was shutting him down so he got annoyed with me. She had me come off the circle and let him canter forward for a while, but in a balanced counter canter so he had something to think about, and after that we had a little more brain to work with.

I gotta be honest, when I first heard her describe this exercise I was like well this is going to suck, and I almost said out loud "I don't know how well this is going to go..." and then I was like "Brain! Stop being a weenie! Maybe it'll be fine"

And...

It was fine.

Milk moustache!

Not only was it fine, we found another level of sophistication in the ToH when I thought I was riding a small circle and she was like "WOOOOOOOOOOOOOW now THAT is a ToH!". Noted - I need to use more outside thigh. And we also found another level of sophistication in the c/w when I softened my elbows, and again when she told me to nudge his belly into the downwards to encourage him to keep his back lifted and give me a place to sit into the transition.

Blue sky, green grass, freshly dragged ring, and a power line pole coming out of my horse's head, lol

On the right lead, I asked her about his propensity to go around with his withers tipped to the inside  (right) while on the right lead canter, and also while diving his breastplate down and overbending. He does this on the lunge too, so I know that's not just me, and it makes the c/w unnecessarily hard that direction.

She fixed that by having me pretend my left (outside) leg was the inside leg and my right (inside) rein was the outside rein. Not to counterbend him, just to use those two aids together. Like magic, he stood up in his withers and gave me the straightest right lead canter steps I've ever felt from him, which made the c/w that much easier.

I've been doing this virtual lesson thing for six months, so I should be used to this by now, but I still end every lesson absolutely stunned at what all we're able to accomplish virtually!

I don't normally do this because I prefer Connor sleep undisturbed at night, but given how much he was drinking at this show, I decided to spring for night check which included AM grain feeding, so we arrived at the show at a leisurely 8:15am on Saturday. 

Check out where all the competitors came from this year! It's truly a national show.

My entourage was starting to assemble at this point, with Mary, Erika, Leah, and a fellow Welsh Cob owner named Sue joining my mom and Lisa. My grandma and great aunt would be joining us the next day too.

Mary threw herself into show groom duties and I never had to ask for anything from her all weekend. Every time I looked over she was doing his stall or grooming him or clipping him or feeding him All The Mints.

At 20 minutes until my ride time, I walked over, and at 15 minutes til, Erika handed me an earbud and fired up Skype so CGP could warm me up virtually.

Erika also takes virtual lessons with CGP on her Castleberry Cob, so she was a natural fit to video for me, which I can't thank her enough for! She also wore the other earbud, so she was the only other person who could hear what CGP was telling me. PC: Leah

It was my first time doing a virtual warm-up. You'd think I'd be used to this virtual thing by now, but it was SO WEIRD to know my coach was two states and 406 miles away from me, because it felt like she was standing right there in the ring to my brain. Just like my weekly virtual lessons, it was just as effective as if she was there with me.

I still think stock ties are dumb, but I have one I like now so that helps. PC: Leah

Connor was kind of flipping me the bird in the warm-up, and she basically said, he's educated enough to know that he needs to yield to the bit when you ask for that, and he's choosing instead to stick his underneck out. You need to have consistent contact instead of this constant wishy washy give and take you're doing. It may take a lot of pressure at first, but stick to your guns.

Bird.

Being flipped.

She was not at all wrong, but I had to go in the ring shortly after she said that, and my squirrel brain that tends to take over during tests interpreted that as "pull on his mouth". And so this test went about as well as you'd expect, especially for a test I still genuinely think doesn't suit Connor. It had some nice moments:

PC: Leah

PC: Leah

But generally it was just a ton of tension and underneck, which as CGP has told me many times, that's when I will never get a simple change out of him. And I didn't get a single clean one

Tension. PC: Leah

And underneck. PC: Leah

At least one of us walked out of the ring proud of himself, lol:

Cheesing for his entourage. PC: Leah

But I was disappointed in myself. I know I can ride better than that. Why do I always ride so much worse in the show ring? I don't feel nervous. 

My disappointment grew when the scores were posted and I got a 61.341% and was one spot out of the ribbons by 0.1%. Which is the same position I found myself in at the last Pony Cup four years ago, just one level higher. I know it sounds stupid, but when I picked up my score sheet and they offered me one of the goofy NDPC participation ribbons, it felt like Groundhog Day and like nothing had changed.

On the positive side, it was my last time ever riding this 2-2 test, and I didn't go off course! PC: Leah

I spent a lot of that day thinking about how we could improve Saturday's test. She was very right that I was being inconsistent in the contact. I hadn't noticed it before, but I couldn't un-notice it after she pointed it out. I was also pulling, which meant I wasn't strong enough in my core. And Mary said it looked like I didn't take a breath the entire test, and she asked me if I had points in the ring that I set for myself to remember to breathe. I do not.

PC: Leah

I never do this since his stamina is such a challenge for me over long show weekends, but after consulting with CGP, I got back on him later that afternoon. I hacked him around the complex and then schooled in our warmup ring, asking for suppleness and submission to the bit. He also got some bodywork from Sue, which was an awesome and unexpected skillset among my friends that day.

When I was hacking the ring steward tried to get my attention and yelled "HEY YOU ON THE HAFLINGER!" I am annoyed to report that I answered to that, lol.

I went to bed that night knowing I would have to ride the pants off of 2-3 to be in contention for neck ribbons, which went from 1st-6th, and I was sitting in 7th (out of 9). I was not out of it, but I was very much on the bubble.

Boing. PC: Leah

I'm treating Pony Cup as the pinnacle of my season this year, and am pulling out all the stops for it, including sending Connor to CGP's for two weeks of full training this week and next week.

(And, you can probably infer from yesterday's post that anytime he's at CGP's I'm not doing his stall, which is a nice "in case of emergency break glass" option for me as a co-op member. Although I'm still taking my feeding/turnout shifts).

On Tuesday morning I got a call from GP trainer. Of course I answered it immediately.

Dropping my kid off at "boarding school" (as my husband calls it) on Sunday

"I just got done riding your pone pone and I just want to BRAG on YOUR RIDING these past seven months! It seriously feels like I last rode him yesterday, the contact feels fantastic and everything is right there. I even schooled half pass, and it was great," she said.

"That's amazing, because I definitely have not touched half pass myself," I joked.

"Here AGAIN? Okay I guess"

I was tickled. I knew deep down that he was still going well, but to hear it validated from her was amazing, especially after I'd been so terrified to take the ride back when I brought him home from full training in January, and then was unable to lesson with her until March.

In fact, he'd been going so well leading up to Waterloo, part of me wondered if it was worth it to spend the money on two weeks of full training, if he even needed a tune-up. But then a never-before-accessed region of my brain kicked in and was like "There's are no broken fundamentals on this horse anymore. He's GOOD. You can send him to her to IMPROVE things now, not just to fix all the problems you created."

Whoa brain, whoa. I'm not used to thinking about myself as anything other than a heavy-handed problem-creating amateur.

Natural selection did not provide me with arms long enough for horse selfies

"It's so much fun to have horses in for training like him," she said. "We can really make a lot of progress now." And then she touched on why the simple changes are sometimes there for me and sometimes not, and what she's doing about it, which is the best thing she could accomplish for me the next two weeks, IMO.

She ended the call by telling me she "survived" riding in my jump saddle. Yes, for the first time I'm forced to ask my 5'10ish GP Dressage trainer to ride my pony in my literally-used-to-belong-to-a-child shortest-flap-they-make CWD jump saddle. But she's a trooper and has a firm policy that she rides training horses in the horse's saddle no matter how poorly it might fit her because the horse's comfort has to come first. 

At least she can take comfort in knowing a Dressage saddle she approves of is on order for him!

Scale is hard to convey in photos, but y'all know how small this horse is. This saddle brings 'postage' stamp saddle' to new heights (CWD SE02 1C flap for the CWD nerds out there)

On Friday evening I hauled Connor to Cincinnati for an overnight stay at GP trainer's and a lesson. We had intended to do two back to back lessons, but I didn't feel like I could take that much time off work.

With - lol - a legit Haflinger stabled next to him

Pretty quickly after we got started, she asked me to halt him in front of her. "He's going so well right now, we get to work on you," she said. "That's a good thing!" This is why I love her - she manages to make me feel like we've made progress milliseconds before she drops the next thing on me.

I mean, he really is genuinely going well lately.

She pointed out that I've over-corrected from the rider I was when I first met her and Mary Wanless just over two years ago. Instead of having an arched back and a perching position, I was now riding with a rounded lower back (something I couldn't even do before Pilates!) and my chest "caved in". 

Chest caved in

"I can count on one hand the number of times I've had to tell this to someone because this is such a rare postural fault in Dressage riders, but you need to stick your boobs out!" She put her fingers on my torso just underneath my bra line and asked me to push her fingers forward.

Mary Wanless people love teaching by touching, and I learn best by having my body parts literally picked up and put in the right place. Maybe it was fate that I fell in with this style of teaching, lol

As soon as I started riding like that, it was like OH WOW she was very right. If I rode like I had been riding, I felt like I was against Connor, but if I rode with my sternum pushed forward, I felt with him.

"Pushing her fingers forward" later in the ride

With that in place, we played with a bunch of stuff, including HI/SI at the trot and canter serpentines. Sometimes we asked for the simple in the middle a la 2-2, and sometimes we counter cantered on through, a la 2-3.

This is NOT every simple change for us, but we at least get one this good a few times a ride.

Interestingly, she had me take my outside leg reeeeeally far back and up in the counter canter - but not actively on - in order to keep him straighter and more honest through that movement, and it helped a ton. Felt weird as hell, but hey.

We feel really, really ready for the show next weekend. Bring it on!

I have a legit horse show hangover (laundry? bills? sleep?), so this is going to be short, with more to come.

We had an AMAZING weekend at our first rated show since 2018.

Pony Dressage: you too can end up with six ribbons after only doing three classes!

I am so happy to have a coach.

Dropping knowledge bombs in celestial cat pants, like a boss. Seriously, zoom in, they are unspeakably amazing, lol.

I am so happy to have a team.

I am so happy to have the world's best supergroom and BFF.

More to come!

To recap, on Tuesday I learned to put my left shoulder forward and to use subtler aids. On Wednesday, I learned just how important the way I sit is to my "new" horse.

On Thursday, she really drove home the key concepts that will make or break us over the next couple of months without her, which are 1. my hands and 2. his neck.

The two things are related. She says more than most horses, Connor is uses his neck as a weapon against me. He'll put his head up just slightly too high (to where the casual observer would still think he was in a nice "frame"), stick his underneck out, lock onto one or both reins, and drop his "breastplate." When he does that, I lose the ability to half halt, he pulls me slightly out of the saddle, and the whole picture, while not unpleasant, just looks dull.

To counteract that, she has me focus on keeping his poll lower than I think it should be, keeping the top of his neck longer than the bottom, and has me regularly check whether I'm able to flex him left and right in any movement, at any time. If I can't, I have to fix it by asking him to release on the stuck rein while using the leg on the same side.

In trying to fix that yesterday, I observed that I always feel like he's stuck on the left rein. CGP said she always feels like he's stuck on the right rein. I said she's probably right and it's probably a perception issue for me: my left shoulder and hand being behind the right probably makes it feel to me like he's stiff on the left when in reality that's not the case.

So she had me hold the reins like driving reins:

"How does that feel different from what you were doing before?" (Mary Wanless instructors have this sentence tattooed on their eyeballs, I swear, lol)

"I can't not follow his mouth, and my left shoulder is naturally in the right place. Also my left hand is cramping..."

So it turns out that I so thoroughly don't close my hand on the left rein that the muscles in my left hand cramped when the driving rein position, which forces you to actually hold the rein.

"GREAT. This is your homework, to ride like this." 

Once all that was sorted, the rest of the lesson we worked on simple changes (still with the driving rein). These are still hard for us. If he gets me even a little bit tipped forward, they don't happen, especially on the left lead. 

Pictured: not happening

We had worked ourselves into a point where he had my number, and I had to get his number back or else the canter walks weren't going to happen (specifically on the left lead - fewer things have to be exactly perfect for the right to happen). She had me stop and reinback until he lifted his breastplate, then walk forward only if he didn't change his balance.

2/3rds of the way through this GIF, I ask him to walk off after a reinback and he immediately shoved his chest down, so I stopped him and asked for another reinback. Note that my hands are going to look busy here, we're trying to break my pulling in the reinback habit by changing the aid to bump bumps upward .

One of the hardest things for me going forward is going to be recognizing when he has my number like this, when the balance changes. There are times when I'll watch her ride him, and she'll stop him dead in the middle of a movement and be like "No sir, you do not get to lean on my hands like that," and I, the observer, couldn't tell at all that his balance had shifted. I have to be more proactive about identifying good and bad balance and fixing it before it festers into a dull ride, just like his neck (again, related).

Canter walks on the right lead are much easier, as long as I'm sitting correctly. This one happened before the balance shift coming-to-Jesus.

Canter walks on the left lead are incredibly difficult, even for CGP, and require everything to be perfect - my position, his balance, my aids, my timing. But, when all of that comes together, they're good.

Then I packed up a ton of tack and blankets and started the journey home <3

So the jump lesson was on Saturday, I drove home Saturday night, and got up at 6:30 Sunday morning to drive right back for my 10am Dressage lesson. Were it not COVID times, I would have stayed with my friend Nicole, but these are the sacrifices we make right now.

The cutest little dachshund

This lesson started out with "Wooooooooooooow, how does it feel to have an educated lesson pony!" from her, because he really did come out looking and feeling great, which was especially good since I was the one that had ridden him the day before too. But as always (and this is why I love her) it's like "Wowwwww okay here's the next thing."

She's still not happy with my posting mechanic, and says I'm losing all tone at the bottom of the post, which means I'm constantly telling Connor "I want you to go 0, I want you to go 100" over and over, which it needs to be like 75/25. 

She wanted me to think about staying active even in the bottom of the post (requiring a lot of core and back muscles, all the way to the top), pulling the stirrups back with my feet a bit, making sure my butt is "touching the cantle" (my words for what it felt like when I got it right) and continuing my post all the way to the top. This is really hard in light of my recent glute med discovery, and indeed it did cramp up during this. I need to strengthen that faster!

After that, we moved onto canter work, and specifically canter-walk. I'll start with the good:

I was struggling with it so much, she got on, reinstalled some respect for the bit and the bend, and then it was much easier.

I have to learn to make my half halts faster. I have to time my ask correctly - "when his mane is standing straight up". I have to sit back and have my butt touching the cantle. I have to keep my legs on him. He knows how to do it, but I have to hold up my end of the bargain, which is exactly what I was hoping to get out of this full training - a horse that knows more than I do.

Also - three weeks ago I cut four inches off his tail after we both noticed he was about to step on it during the reinbacks now that he's so rocked back on his hocks, and then after Sunday's lesson, I had to cut ANOTHER four inches off! He does grow about an inch of tail a month, but still. I guess I'm learning why Dressage horses bang the tails halfway up the hind cannons.

Sitting is not a problem